The Girls Are Coming

by Peggie Carlson

Overview

In 1974, lured by good wages, a 22-year-old African American college student from suburban Minneapolis started work as a pipefitter trainee for Minnegasco, a Minnesota natural-gas utility. Peggie Samples was one of the first four women hired by the company into non-secretarial jobs after the passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972. On the job, she and her beautiful blond friend Sonny met men who were hostile, men who were helpful, and men who were simply flummoxed to find "girls" in their midst. "S'long as a guy does his job," one told her, "it don't matter ta me if he's a gal."

This memoir is the sometimes hilarious story of how they learned to work together—and what they all learned about stereotypes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780873513760
Publisher:	Minnesota Historical Society Press
Publication date:	08/15/1999
Series:	Midwest Reflections
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	211
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.70(d)

Editorial Reviews

"Can women be trained to do men's work?" According to Carlson, this unspoken question lurked in the minds of the male workers at a Minnesota natural gas company called Minnegasco when four women were hired in compliance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Act in 1974. One of the women, a 22-year-old African-American college student at the time, has now written an account of her experiences that supports her contention that her male co-workers' antagonism stemmed from sexism rather than racism. In fact, Carlson gave up her first company job as a meter reader because a black male employee schemed to make her life as difficult as possible. Trained as a pipe fitter instead, she describes the experiences, both good and bad, that she and a fellow female worker shared in fitting into a male environment. The author of a children's book (The Canning Season), Carlson writes with assurance, although the episodic narrative makes for a somewhat disjointed read. The anecdotes rely heavily on exact conversations between workers, but since the journals Carlson kept during this period were accidentally thrown away, the dialogue may be more accurate in spirit than verbatim. Despite the offensive jokes and unwelcome sexual advances she endured, Carlson became very fond of some of her supervisors and colleagues, who came to respect her ability to do her job. She dropped out of college and continued to work for 11 more years at Minnegasco, where she met her future husband. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In 1972, Carlson became the first female licensed pipefitter in the state of Minnesota and one of the first women at the Minnesota Gas Company to hold a nonsecretarial position. Here she discusses the harassment she faced, including an attempted sexual assault by one of her co-workers, but she also talks about the men who took her under their wing and taught her how to stand up for herself in a community of men. Carlson briefly discusses her parents' frustration at seeing their daughter give up college for a job they considered demeaning. She also notes the changes that occurred as minorities and younger men with working wives joined the staff, replacing some of the old-line white male employees. Carlson's book is similar to Solange de Santis's Life on the Line (LJ 6/1/99), but she has written more of a memoir than a piece of reportage. This should find a home in collections of women's history, biography, and manufacturing history.--Danna C. Bell-Russel, Library of Congress Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In 1974, lured by good wages, Carlson, a 22-year-old college student from suburban Minneapolis, started working as a pipefitter trainee for a natural gas utility. She was one of the first four women hired by the company into non-secretarial jobs after the passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972. Her memoir is a sometimes humorous story of how women and men at the company learned to work together and what they all learned about stereotypes. Lacks a subject index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Carlson was the first women hired as a pipefitter by Minnegasco, the Minneapolis Gas Company. In this memoir, Carlson tells sometimes shocking, sometimes funny, anecdotes of her efforts to break new ground for working class women.
— ForeWord

Erik Bledsoe